Bucks Man Guilty Of Bank Robberies

April 21, 1994|by FRANK DEVLIN, The Morning Call

A 42-year-old Upper Bucks man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to four Philadelphia area bank robberies in January.

Thomas R. Wischusen of the 2000 block of Kunsman Road, Pleasant Valley, faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each of four counts of bank robbery, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roland B. Jarvis said.

Wischusen pleaded before U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. in Philadelphia, Jarvis said, and will be sentenced July 26.

Jarvis said Wischusen has a long history of criminal activity and has served time in state prison.

In addition to the bank robbery cases, he is also believed to be behind house burglaries in several communities throughout Bucks and Lehigh counties last year.

According to police, he usually backed his car into a driveway, left the engine running and broke a window or pried a door open in a secluded part of the house.

He was being held without bail last night at Montgomery County Prison.

Wischusen was wanted for burglaries in Bucks and Lehigh counties when he was arrested in Philadelphia on Jan. 25 after a car chase.

That day, Jarvis said, Wischusen told tellers at a PNC Bank in Gladwyne that he was armed and held them up. He got $50.

After the holdup, the prosecutor said, police chased Wischusen's Volvo station wagon before catching him on an entrance ramp to the Schuylkill Expressway. During the chase, Wischusen rammed a police car with the Volvo.

After his arrest, Jarvis said, Wischusen admitted to robberies at a PNC Bank in Bensalem, a CoreStates/First Pennsylvania Bank in Plymouth Meeting and the Third Federal Savings and Loan Association in Northeast Philadelphia. The robberies occurred between Jan. 14 and Jan. 20, and Wischusen got about $4,000.